The Liberty Shop is a women’s clothing boutique carrying international and Swiss designers. The store is a small temple to minimalism, and carries classic styles along with a few contemporary ones. In addition to clothing, visitors will find carefully collected accessories, and decorative items like posters, journals, and pillows. White walls and light wood dominate the space, while splashes of color come from the pastel color of a shirt or the flower pattern on a throw rug. The store collaborates with local artisans, including some who make leather goods with traditional tanning techniques.
This men’s clothing and accessories boutique store carries brands from all over the world, though it shows a slight favoritism for those from France, Sweden, and Japan. The store is small, but packed with elegant clothing that adheres to its governing philosophy of “sober originality,” which refers to the style of a city gentleman. If you ask the owner, Mr. Alain himself, he will carefully describe each item in his store, and why he has chosen to sell it. An inspired collection of rucksacks and backpacks from local designers make a visit to Mr. Alain worthwhile.
This lovely small street runs through part of central Lausanne with Rue de La Paix on the east and Place Saint-François on the west. One of the city’s premier high-end shopping locations, the street is bustling with cafes, shops, alleyways, charming buildings, and cobblestones. It’s a pleasure to walk through and a nice place to rub arms with locals. Many stores on the street, which is one of the oldest in the city, sells goods from international luxury brands.
Launched in 1987, Maniak is a cavernous clothing store that carries mostly trendy workwear and costumes and costume accessories. There’s an alternative rock hipster vibe to the place, and it’s just as likely to stock work wear as it is to carry band t–shirts and leather jackets. Think Carhartt and Schott jackets, Dickie’s jeans and shirts, and Freitag shoulder bags. Several rooms are dedicated to costumes, where visitors can find masks, feather boas, faux leather, angels wings, and pretty much anything one would want to create any kind of costume.
Manor is one of the main department stores in the center of town. You can find everything here, from clothes to stationary and electronic goods. There is also a general bookshop. In the basement, a supermarket offers a wide range of fresh produce (fish, meat and vegetables), together with all the usual products. There is also a desk called the Ticket Corner, which sells tickets for various shows throughout Switzerland.
Métropole is a shopping center in downtown Lausanne, and the largest of its kind in the city and the surrounding region. Here, white-walled, air-condition hallways lead past 50 shops on five levels, including international clothing stores, a supermarket, health and nail salons, pet stores, and dozens of others. The center is modern and spacious, and sometimes organizes promotions with parallel community events, such as circuses, games, and concerts. Recyclub, series of free family workshops about limiting household waste, are run from the shopping center.
At Heidi's Shop, you will find everything even remotely connected to Switzerland, things that you may not even know were connected to Switzerland! One can be slightly overwhelmed by the sheer variety of cuckoo clocks and cows that line the walls from floor to ceiling. However, if you can see through the more tacky items you can find some genuine Swiss gems that stand alongside the traditional tourist presents, such as the 4.5kg Toblerone bar and pen knives with 50 "useful" blades.
Ochsner Sport is a chain of sports shops found all around Switzerland. This particular shop is located in the center of Lausanne and has a large selection of skateboards, roller blades, snowboards, tennis rackets, bicycles and more. Most brand names are stocked (K2, Burton, Rossignol, Head and Atomic) and if your desired product is by chance not available, they will order it for you. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly, whereas the prices are reasonable. For further information, please check the website.
Lausanne sometimes seems over-run with department stores, but this one is a bit more upmarket than the rest. Like Globus, the building itself is not particularly appealing, but once you enter, though, you feel right at home. While not as extravagant as Harrods or Harvey Nichols, you still feel like you have walked into someone's flat. The store's elegance is subtle and understated yet there are enough enticing displays to remind you that you are there to shop. With designers such as Max Mara and Armani every age range is catered to. The BG Cafe is located on the third floor where customers love to relax after an evening of shopping.
Located on the Rue de Bourg, one of Lausanne's prime shopping streets, this is a very fine jewelery store. Having been recently renovated, this shop looks elegant and classy. It stores a large range of jewels and Swiss watches. The Bucherer name is renowned throughout the country and actually produces its own range, but such names as Cartier, Rolex, Piaget, Chopard, Baume & Mercier, Tag Heuer, Gucci and Rado can also be found here. One may also ask for catalogs of various brands, and then the shop will order the item for you personally. One might say that the staff is very welcoming and professional. This is a very classy shop, selling luxury items for both men and women. Check website for more details.
There has been a paper supply store called Krieg in Lausanne for more than 130 years. Newly merged with Kramer in 1996, the KramerKrieg stores are among those must-visit places. It is hard to imagine who decided to stock all the items available here, everything from liquid soap, stationary and pizza boxes to computer and furniture are available under one roof. This store is located in Lausanne and Montreux. They have a virtual store on-line and welcome orders by email or by phone. For registration, please check the website.
As "the" department store in Lausanne to visit, Globus boasts six floors of goods from fashion to sports equipment, hi-fi's to perfume. Much of what is on offer is what you would expect, but the food section is somewhat better than the rest. Food stalls at every entrance entice you off the streets and once through the dull facade, the interiors are well laid out and spacious. The store's stationary department mixes fun and practicality, and their array of shoes is fantastic. One could spend hours in here.